One year ago this weekend, on Leap Day 2020, what was then the nation’s first known coronavirus death was announced here in the Puget Sound.
Seattle-King County Public Health stated that the death was a man in his 50s at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland. Public Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin also noted a cluster of COVID-19 cases at Life Care Center in Kirkland, the greatest number of cases seen in one spot in Washington to that date. “It’s a perfect storm for a novel virus to come out without vaccine, without population-based protection, and without an effective therapeutic agent,” said EvergreenHealth’s Dr. Frank Riedo at the time, who was on the frontlines for the state’s first cases.
The Kirkland death was thought to be the first COVID-19 death in America at that date. However, later post-mortem reports of San Francisco Bay Area deaths from earlier in February turned out to reveal coronavirus infections.